Saturday, September 08, 2012

I am asked by friends why I believe in ghosts. The subtext
is why does a smart guy believe in ghosts? I ask them to define what a ghost is
exactly. Their answers vary a bit, but the gist is ghosts are spirits of the
dead.

I don’t believe ghosts are the spirits of the dead.

I don’t know what they are, but over the years I’ve kept my
ears open for scientific explanations. The big culprit so far is a phenomenon called
Infrasound. It is low-frequency sound waves which seem to affect people’s
minds. The other guilty party is atmospheric contamination. Some of this is due
to climate change. These don’t explain all of the aspects to all hauntings, but
they seem to be present in the majority of cases. I reviewed my library of
true-ghost stories, and I took notes. I found all hauntings had one or more
things in common.

The first element is underground water. Most old (haunted)
houses are built over, or next to a well. In cold climates it made sense to
build over the well to keep from going into the snow for water. Water
evaporates creating negative ions. These ions form a field which is sometimes
strong enough to influence the atmosphere. Batteries will often drain as the
negative ions complete the circuit in flashlights, and electrical gear. Their
influence on people is not clear, but I suspect they are behind the feeling of
being touched.

Underground streams and rivers compound the ions with
additional microwave radiation. These are not high levels, not enough to cook
your lunch, but enough to make you feel like you’re being watched. In areas
where there is Limestone the water will flow at various speeds generating
measurably different fields of energy.

Limestone itself is another suspect. Limestone is prone to
caves made by the underground rivers. These caves generate infrasound where
they open to the outside. Limestone gives off CO2 when exposed to acids. CO2 in
low doses will cause hallucinations such as hearing voices, and seeing shadows.
A home built over Limestone can be a ghost-generating factory.

CO2 (the cause behind rapid climate change) is also a
suspect in hauntings. The first thing a good ghost hunter checks is the CO2
levels in a home. The housing boom in the 1990s resulted in a lot of poorly
installed heating systems which resulted in CO2 poisoning. The symptoms read
like a paranormal thriller.

The housing boom lead to another fringe cause which was
spurred by toxic sheet-rock from China. The sheetrock seemed to affect
electrical wiring, and appliances. The gas caused a list of symptoms, but the
CDC made no serious study of the threat to people. There is a correlation between
the rises of reported hauntings in brand new homes. Theories of Indian burial
grounds were rampant. Now it seems the cause was the construction itself.

The 1990s saw the rise of the McMansion, over-sized single
family homes with huge square footage. The large open floor plans generate
infrasound in large doses. Then you compound things with a poorly installed
heating system, and toxic sheetrock, and the rise in the number of people
believing in ghosts makes sense.

These influences don’t explain everything. They don’t explain why
people with no knowledge of a location’s history will see the same apparitions,
or experience the exact same events that others have. I suspect they enhance
these encounters for some people. Not everyone can sing, many people cannot
color-coordinate their clothes, and there are a few people who hate chocolate.
People are built differently so how they are influenced by the things I’ve
listed here will be unique to each individual.

As I said, I don’t believe ghosts are spirits of the dead. I
believe they are manifestations of a variety of atmospheric influences we have
yet to discover. I plan to keep looking.